“Crazy, Stupid, Love.” is a sterling romantic comedy, a laugh out loud farce and spot-on drama at a time when mainstream movies struggle for mediocrity in all three genres.
Steve Carell leads a dreamy cast that lets everyone have a moment to shine. Marisa Tomei scores as a spurned lover while Emma Stone confirms her It Girl status in spades.
But it’s Ryan Gosling who trumps them all as the ladies man your girlfriends warned you about.
Carell is Cal, a nebbish too distracted to realize his marriage to Emily (Julianne Moore) is all but over. Emily wants a divorce, and Cal simply accepts her terms and retreats to a singles bar to drown his sorrows.
Enter Jacob (Gosling), a magnetic playah who always knows what to say to a beautiful woman. When he coos, “let’s get out of here” after a furious round of flirtation it’s impossible to resist. Jacob watches Cal bore everyone within ear shot about his marital woes and decides to make him his pet project.
Out go Cal’s frumpy clothes, mommy jeans and Super Cuts hairstyle.
“You’re better than the Gap,” Jacob tells Cal in between semi-playful face slaps.
The new, improved Cal is a chick magnet who beds an AA alum (Tomei) as well as a Whitman’s Sampler of bar babes. But he still pines for Emily, wishing he had fought harder to save their marriage.
But “Crazy” is just getting started. Stone co-stars as Hannah, a law student who escapes Jacob’s charisma tractor beam – at first. And Cal’s son Robbie (Johan Bobo) is pining for the family’s babysitter (Analeigh Tipton) who harbors a secret crush on Cal. We haven’t even touched on Kevin Bacon, cast as the man Emily slept with before her marriage to Cal dissolved.
Directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (“I Love You Phillip Morris”) balance most of the storylines although Hannah’s back story could easily be excised without losing a beat. Carell proves his sitcom days are officially over, making Cal’s journey from punching bag to the comeback kid believable and raw.
But who knew Gosling had Jacob in him? He’s buff beyond belief, a man with superhuman confidence and a wardrobe ripped from the pages of GQ. But Jacob isn’t a stereotype. Gosling won’t settle for that.
The film trips over a few cloying moments, like a graduation speech divorced from reality and a subplot involving racy pictures that would feel stale in an episode of “According to Jim.” But its passel of tiny surprises make the story enchanting all the same. Cal sneaks into his old backyard at night to trim the hedges while Emily sleeps. Emily, missing Cal but feeling she needs to stay separated, calls Cal with a fictional boiler problem just to hear his voice.
And when Cal finally puts his new makeover into action by wooing Tomei’s character, he wishes he could show her off to Emily as a post-divorce slam.
Screenwriter Dan Fogelman, best known for penning smart animated fare (“Cars,” “Bolt”), offers whipsmart dialogue rooted in character, not contrivances. Fogelman’s narrative is another matter. “Crazy, Stupid, Love.” demands we swallow some pretty convenient plot twists. It’s absurd that one of Cal’s conquests just so happens to be his son’s English teacher, but the comic payoff is too priceless to complain.
The film veers toward farce in the final reel, a shift that delivers some big laughs but still feels deflating. How often are we treated to smart, sophisticated romantic comedies that don’t insult our intelligence?
“Crazy, Stupid, Love.” is true to its title, a messy valentine to romance in all its ungainly forms.
(Photo: Ryan Gosling plays a ladies man trying to give tips to a newly divorced Steve Carell in “Crazy, Stupid, Love.” A Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo by Ben Glass)
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Terrific review! Thank you. I cannot wait to see this film. Carell is the new “go to” funny man to helm comedies, and this one appears to be another homerun.